October Spurlock The Show Critique

Although the idea of some of the aspects of the set design, scenic designer Colton Spurlock failed to deliver the message he was trying to convey in a lot of the time. Only a few of his creations aided in how the play came across to me. For example, by putting graffiti like drawings on the walls in he set he symbolized the effect of the younger generation on the otherwise very traditional brick wall. The graffiti looked like children had drawn it since it looked like stick figure type drawings of flowers. This reflects the incense and lack of information that the teenagers suffer from in the culture portrayed in the show. The teenagers are forced to learn things by exploring when their curiosity prompts them to because the parents are too afraid
For instance, most of the teenagers in the show are dressed in very modern edgy clothing while the adults looked more traditional. The teenagers wore mostly dark rebellious colors such as black and red that looked like punk modern fashion, they wore had fishnet stockings, shorts and other articles of clothing that would certainly be inappropriate to the deeply religious culture they were part of in the musical. Most of the adult characters wore muted colors such as navy blue and black and very traditional articles of clothing such as long dresses for the females and dressy suits for the males. This creates the first layer of contrast between the two generations but there are also differences within them. From the teenagers Wendla and Melchior were dressed differently than the others although not traditional like the adults. Wendla is always dressed in white which is a sign of her innate purity and naivety. Her limited experience with all kinds of adult issues is evident as she couldn’t understand her friend Martha's abuse or that sex is what leads to pregnancy. Out of all the teenagers in the play she is perhaps the most inexperienced and that’s why she is highlighted by dressing starkly different from the others. Melchior’s costume is sleek and has light colors such as nude and baby blue that highlight the goodness of his character. He stands up for the ideas that are wrong with the church and even confronts his teacher trying to help his best friend Moritz. As for the adults Samantha Kennedy made sure to emphasize Martha’s abusive father and the man that performed Wendla’s abortion by making them be dressed in less formal dirty raggedy clothes that made me see they were sleazy people and omens of bad things to happen. The idea of blunt costume styles to differentiate the different